Petrol, diesel prices scale new highs on rupee woes

Carrie Elliott

Reduction in petrol and diesel prices in Andhra Pradesh has come on a day the Congress party anchored a protest against the rising fuel prices across the country and the falling value of the rupee against the dollar. "There were hikes of about Rs 1.5 per litre in the earlier system when the revision took place on fortnightly basis", said Arvind Thakkar, president of Federation of Gujarat Petroleum Dealers Association, the apex body of all local associations of petrol pump operators in the state. In a span of one week, prices of petrol and diesel have gone up by Rs 1.65 a litre and Rs 1.92 a litre, respectively. In Mumbai, the prices of petrol and diesel on Sunday are Rs 87.89 per litre diesel Rs 77.09 per litre respectively. The increase pushed the petrol price in Delhi to Rs 80.50 per litre.

According to reports, the Centre imposes a total of Rs 15.33 per litre of the excise duty on diesel and Rs 19.48 on petrol. Two of them, rising price of crude oil and depreciation in the value of the rupee against the U.S. dollar, are beyond the control of government.

Chandrababu Naidu said that orders for bringing into effect the new rates of petrol and diesel would be issued on Monday and will be effectual from Tuesday morning.

"Since the central government is not responding on (reducing the) petrol prices, Naidu is doing the exercise to give relief to the public", sources in the TDP said. Two, it insulates fuel prices from competitive politics.

"We have made a decision to reduce Value-Added Tax on diesel and petrol by 4 per cent, which will provide much-needed relief to the people of the state, be it farmers or women or others", Raje told reporters in Rawatsar after making the announcement. This led to its excise collections from petro goods more than doubling in the last four years - from Rs 99,184 crore in 2014-15 to Rs 2,29,019 crore in 2017-18.

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